SAN FRANCISCO – Jan. 31, 2017 - Sauce Labs, Inc., provider of the world’s largest cloud-based platform for automated testing of web and mobile applications, today announced the results of an independent survey titled, “Testing Trends in 2017: A Survey of Software Professionals.” The survey, conducted by Dimensional Research, reveals more desire to speed up build deployment times, as 28 percent of those surveyed say they want to deploy hourly (up from 18 percent in 2016). However the findings also show a clear lack in movement in the speed in fixing identified bugs.

The report, commissioned by Sauce Labs, represents the company’s third annual “State of Testing” research report, and is designed to better understand current trends in delivering high quality web and mobile applications. Covering topics such as agile software development, modern testing techniques, Continuous Integration (CI), and cross-browser test coverage, the report stems from a survey conducted in December 2016 of more than 700 technology professionals responsible for the quality of software applications. "Faced with increased market pressure to compete in today’s digital economy--where every business is a software business--it’s no surprise that more development teams want to release software faster,” said Charles Ramsey, CEO of Sauce Labs. "What is surprising from this report is the revelation that the speed in fixing identified bugs has remained stagnant. There is huge opportunity for teams to leverage automated testing to identify bugs earlier in the release cycle, immediately evaluate the bug with video playback and other assets, and share those test results across teams to fix them as quickly as possible.”

Per the survey, teams are deploying builds faster, with 14 percent reporting hourly up from only 10 percent last year. Findings also show increased desire by development teams to deploy more quickly. Last year only eight percent surveyed said they were not deploying as fast as they wanted to, but that percentage has nearly doubled to 14 percent this year.

The survey also revealed a lack of process in fixing bugs once they have been identified. No progress was made at all in the number of development teams that can fix bugs immediately once they are identified, which stayed flat at 23 percent in both 2016 and 2017. Only minor progress (51 percent, up from 48 percent last year) was made in those who fix bugs within a few working days after they are identified.

Additional key findings from the report include:

Still ample room for testing to improve

87 percent use test automation tools, but 42 percent are still mostly or entirely manual testing

Some good news for automation with 32 percent being mostly or entirely automated with their testing, up from 26 percent in 2016

74 percent fix bugs within a few working days, up only a tiny amount from 71 percent in 2016

Only 1 in 4 report tests are written each time new code is checked in

Decrease in breadth of cross browser testing

Testing on Chrome and Edge increased while testing on all other browsers decreased

49 percent test on only the most recent browser version, up from 27 percent in 2016

Other trends: Cloud, DevOps, agile and more

52 percent are using public or private cloud for testing, up from 43 percent in 2015

Use of cloud for spillover testing (19 percent up from zero percent) and specific types of tests (54 percent up from nine percent) increases dramatically

Only 10 percent have fully embraced DevOps although 73 percent have started down the path and an additional 15 percent are considering it

89 percent have adopted agile in some form but only 32 percent are fully agile

“In the past few years, the way development teams use cloud services for testing has changed dramatically,” said Diane Hagglund, principal researcher of Dimensional Research. “Teams are becoming more efficient and prescriptive when it comes to how they are using third party cloud services for testing. The report further shows adoption of Continuous Integration (CI) continues to increase, as development teams invest in new methodologies like CI to meet the demands of today's market needs.”

Survey MethodologyA global database of technology professionals responsible for testing web and mobile applications was emailed an invitation to participate in a Web survey on the topic of testing trends. A total of 732 individuals participated in the survey. Participants included a variety of roles, company sizes, industries and regions. A copy of this report was offered as an incentive for participation. To allow for trend analysis, certain questions were repeated from similar surveys conducted to the same audience in early 2016 and early 2015.

About Dimensional Research Dimensional Research® provides practical market research to help technology companies make their customers more successful. Our researchers are experts in the people, processes, and technology of corporate IT and understand how technology organizations operate. We partner with our clients to deliver actionable information that reduces risks, increases customer satisfaction, and grows the business. For more information visit www.dimensionalresearch.com.

About Sauce LabsSauce Labs provides the world's largest cloud-based platform for the automated testing of web and mobile applications. Its award-winning service eliminates the time and expense of maintaining an in-house testing infrastructure, freeing development teams of any size to innovate and release better software, faster.